


With You, I'm at Home

by TheCaffeineAlchemist



Category: RWBY
Genre: 100 Drabble Challenge, 100 Themes Challenge, Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, One Shot Collection, Romance, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-05
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-12 04:23:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18003749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCaffeineAlchemist/pseuds/TheCaffeineAlchemist
Summary: Lie Ren was a font of tranquility; Nora Valkyrie, a living thunderstorm. Two unlikely friends tied together by a bond few could understand, all they ever had was each other. And maybe that's all they really need.A series of connected, non-sequential drabbles following the together-togetherness of this strange, unfailing pair.





	With You, I'm at Home

Ren had heard it many, many times over the years. It had taken different forms: puzzled glances in the school hallways, whispers behind his back, and even the occasional direct question from an inquisitive peer. The confusion was palpable, the question clear.

Why did Lie Ren put up with Nora Valkyrie?

He understood, of course. From the outside, he and Nora were an enigma, a concept others could never truly understand. But that was precisely the reason Ren didn’t let their judgement bother him: they didn’t know, couldn’t know why Ren and Nora fit together like two jagged puzzle pieces.

He saw the annoyance on the other children’s faces when Nora would wake him up at the crack of dawn by jumping on his bed in the orphanage. He heard the laughter when Nora tackled him in the hallways at school. He saw Professor Goodwitch’s pitying glance at the teaming ceremony when Nora hugged him onstage, squealing with excitement. He saw every raised eyebrow, every confused frown, every forced smile.

But they could never know.

They could never know how Nora used to cling to his arm, shaking, hiding behind him for protection when someone spoke to them on the street; how she never went anywhere unless Ren was coming with her; how she used to cower instinctively when someone offered her kindness. They would never know the lengths Ren went to protect her and convince her that the world wasn’t her enemy.

He spent years encouraging her smiles.

 

* * *

 

Ren remembered a warm spring afternoon from his childhood, when the snow was gone for the year and the birds had returned to chirp contentedly in the trees at the edges of Kuroyuri. Tired of his toys, Ren had run outside to the garden, where his mother greeted him from where she knelt in the soil, and invited him to help her tend the plants. She showed him how deep to dig to plant the new flowers, guiding his hands as he handled the seeds and bulbs, all the while telling him each flower’s name, and what they’d look like when they were fully grown.

When his mother moved on to tend the already flowering plants, weeding and testing the soil, Ren became fascinated with a row of bright flowers, each shaped like a six-pointed star.

“Mother, what’s that one called?” he asked, pointing.

His mother looked up and smiled. “That one is _amaririsu._ ”

“ _Amaririsu_ ,” he tried the word on his tongue, admiring the petals streaked with pink and white. Each flower was unfurled, stretching up to the warm sunlight. But as Ren’s gaze fell on the end of the row, he frowned.

“Mother, there’s something wrong with that one!”

His mother stood, brushing her hands off as she joined her son, crouching by the plant he had indicated. The bud on the plant was stubbornly closed, only a hint of pink visible, in stark contrast to its flowering brethren.

“Oh Lie, there’s nothing wrong with that one.”

“Then why won’t it open?”

His mother smiled tenderly, urging Ren closer as she began to clear the ground around the flower. “Just because it hasn’t opened yet, doesn’t mean there’s necessarily something wrong with it. Some flowers just need a little more care at first.” Ren watched as she pulled a few small weeds from around the base of the plant, and made sure that the taller plants weren’t in the way of its sunlight. “You have to make sure it has what it needs, give it some patience, and in time, it’ll bloom.”

A few days later, the bud had bloomed into the largest flower in the _amaririsu_ patch. Ren thought it was the most beautiful blossom in the whole garden.

 

* * *

 

 

The moment Ren met Nora Valkyrie would forever be burned into his memory. Her wide eyes shone sky-blue and fearful as she stared at the pack of bullies surrounding her like Beowolves, cowering in that alleyway behind the bakery. She seemed so helpless, at least until she bit the hand of one of the boys who mocked her. Even in his own state of panic, he’d been a little impressed by that. And then she’d ran.

When he saw her again that night as the village burned, he knew he couldn’t abandon her again. With more determination than he had ever had before, he ran to her side. She was wary of him, too, at first. But when she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder, he realized that he was exactly what she needed, and exactly where he needed to be.

Ren was happy that Nora trusted him so much. But he wanted her to trust others, too. He wanted her to let out that fire, that spark he’d seen in her as a child. But some people just need a little extra care.

He spent years encouraging her smiles, making her laugh, extricating her joy. Day by day, he coaxed her out of her shell. He watched as she changed before his eyes. She stood taller. She talked louder. She didn’t cower. She walked through the hallways without fear, talked to adults with assertiveness. In combat training, she punched harder, ran faster, fought rougher. He could have cheered for joy the day she started skipping alongside him on the street.

Ren watched Nora Valkyrie grow from a scared, wan little girl into a vibrant, powerful, pink explosion of a woman. So why did Lie Ren put up with Nora Valkyrie in all her loud, frenetic energy? Because he couldn’t be prouder of the girl who learned to be herself.

 

* * *

 

**epoch**

(n) a point of time distinguished by a particular event or features; the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of anything.

**Author's Note:**

> This work started as a result of two things:  
> 1\. There is not nearly enough fanfiction devoted to arguably the cutest canon couple in the show, and  
> 2\. I really needed to start writing again.  
> It's been a while for me, so this is likely going to be slow-going, rough at first, and a LONG haul. But I have a full outline and an undying love for our Flower Power-Couple, and I hope that will shine through my procrastination and rough prose. I don't have an upload schedule, but I hope to get the chapters out fairly regularly. I also don't have a beta, so feel free to mention any mistakes you come across so I can fix them.  
> Thank you for reading <3


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